September 4, 2022 | by Pastor Peter

When Christians think about making disciples, our first impulse is often to make it easy. But Jesus doesn’t make following him easy. Instead, Jesus demands everything.

In his culture, there were no stronger ties than family ties. Yet he demands that his disciples’ allegiance to family take a back seat to their allegiance to him. This was far more shocking to his original listeners than it would be to us today. If Jesus were speaking to us, he might say, “You must hate your country, your freedom and your material possessions to be my disciple.”

Jesus demands everything because it’s only when his people live a life modelled after Jesus’ life that everyone else will see the wisdom of God lived out in flesh and blood. If the church isn’t distinctive, it’s just another service club. Also, Jesus’ demands seem excessive when we forget the seriousness of sin. It’s a (spiritually) deadly disease that requires drastic measures to combat. When we give Jesus everything he goes to work rooting out sin’s power in our lives.

So how will we respond to Jesus’ invitation to follow him? Will we try to negotiate him into lower his demands? Or will we lay down our lives and allow him to rule as our Lord?